When I got Double Cross I didn't realize it was so far in the series. While I had the feeling it still could be read without the prior knowledge, I still felt like it would have made for a better read if I did. The main character is presented as being very great in basically everything he does. He solves crimes. It was entertaining but nothing that blew me away. Maybe I'll try another book in the future to make up my mind.

This book. Is. Amazing.

Do you know how many uncaptured German spies were operating in Britain during WWII?
Zero.
That's right.

Every single German spy was either captured or became part of MI5's XX System, aka "Double-Cross." And each one of them was... a character. As McIntyre puts it:

"They included a bisexual Peruvian playgirl, a tiny Polish fighter pilot, a mercurial Frenchwoman a Serbian seducer, and a deeply eccentric Spaniard with a diploma in chicken farming. Together, under Robertson's guidance, they delivered all of the little lies that together made up the big lie.
[...]
The Double Cross spies were, variously, courageous, treacherous, capricious, greedy, and inspired. They were not obvious heroes, and their organization was betrayed from within by a Soviet spy. One was so obsessed with her pet dog that she came close to derailing the entire invasion. All were, to some extent, fantasists, for that is the very essence of espionage. Two were of dubious moral character.One was a triple, and possibly a quadruple, agent."

The story of the Double Cross spies reads like a British farce, up to and including the fact that all of the spies were given punny names. One of the handlers thought of the entire war in times of cricket. One agent, codenamed Garbo, created an entirely imaginary network of sub-spies that comprised 27 hallucinated agents. Another nearly drove MI5 to send a warship to bring her dog over and avoid the sacrosanct quarantine laws. Yet another began his career in Portugal, making up fake reports for the Germans about Liverpudlians hanging out in wine bars and naval exercises in what turned out to be landlocked lakes. No matter how easily the British managed to defeat the Germans in the spying game, the Soviets' Cambridge Five had just as successfully infiltrated them. Yet the Cambridge Five were, if anything, too successful: knowing from their spies about Double Cross, the Soviets were convinced their own agents had also been doubled. Oh, the perils of paranoia.

Double Cross is occasionally poignant-- it is, after all, about WWII-- and often incredible, but above all, it is hands-down funny. My favourite quote:

One evening, in his safe house in Hinxton, near Cambridge, Caroli crept up behind his minder while he was playing solitaire and tried to throttle him with a piece of rope. When this failed, he apologized, tied the man to a chair, and ran off with a can of sardines, a pineapple, and a large canvas shoe. He then stole a motorcycle and motored, very slowly, toward the coast with the canoe balanced on his head. He intended to paddle to Holland. A roadman reported to police that a man with a canoe had fallen off his motorcycle on Pamisford road, and he had helped the man throw the canoe over a hedge.'

If you're looking for a crazy fun nonfiction book to read, then Double Cross is it.

An ARC was provided to me in exchange for an honest review.

Jude and Rowan are settling into their relationship after moving in together. But not everything is perfect in paradise. After five months of living together Rowan still hasn't unpacked and this plants a seed of doubt in Jude that Rowan isn't fully committed to their relationship. Things get a bit more tense when a still recovering Rowan returns to work and the new captain has it in for Rowan. When Jude's neighbor finds skeletal remains on his property things turn from bad to worse.

I really enjoyed this installment in the series. I was sadden about what happened between Jude and Rowan and that their relationship became so strained that they had to resort to the actions that occurred. The murder case was really intriguing and it was great seeing Jude and Rowan in action to solve the case even if their relationship took a hit. Ishmael was not my favorite character in the book. I was glad to see he was less of a jerk towards the end.

Originally reviewed at Sinfully.

After the first two books in the series (you really shouldn’t read this as a standalone) there is little doubt that Jude and Rowan love each other and are better together than apart. The problem is that both of them have a stubborn streak. Rowan is constantly afraid that once he commits and gets comfortable his happiness will be taken away. Jude still hasn’t fully come to grips with the fact that he is no longer in law enforcement. He enjoys running his fishing tour business, but he can’t turn off his investigative instincts and his need to see justice done.

Rowan and Jude have been living together for a few months, but Rowan can’t bring himself to move all the way in with Jude. His clothes and toiletries have all found a place in the home, but the rest of his boxes and personal items haven’t been unpacked. He knows this bothers Jude, but deep down he still fears that Jude will be gone from his life again so why should he bother settling in further. Besides his priority is his physical recovery, which is still ongoing, and getting back to normal at work. Jude can feel Rowan holding things back from him and wonders if he still has one foot out the door.

Rowan is back to work with a new boss who holds a grudge against him and is going to make his life difficult. When their neighbor, Riley, calls Jude about some remains he finds on his property, things start to go bad very quickly. Rowan is tasked with the investigation and his new boss is all over him, especially when Jude is at the crime scene when they show up. Jude believes Riley is going to take the fall for a murder he didn’t commit. No matter how much Rowan tells Jude to stop interfering in the case, how much he explains to Jude that his new boss is looking for something to hang him with, Jude just can’t stop himself.

While the mystery is again well done, this book is all about the emotional side of the romance between Jude and Rowan. This time we get both their points of view so even though they have a difficult time there is no question that they both love each other and want the relationship to work. The problem is that once again, love might not be enough to keep them together and their old demons and habits aren’t easy to break. Jude and Rowan have gotten a bit better at talking, but neither one listens all that well. There are still things being held back and frustrations have them lashing out at each other until they finally break.

If it sounds like all the heavy tension is going to bring the mood down, don’t worry; Jude’s sister Kristy puts an end to that. She has tasked Jude and Rowan with throwing a bachelor party for her groom who lives out of the country and they have never met. The woman gets on my nerves at times, but she has nothing but love for Jude and Rowan and will do what she can to make sure they are as happy as she is.

I absolutely love Rowan and Jude as a couple. It’s only been about five months since they got back together in [b:Doubleback|25238854|Doubleback (Doubleback, #1)|Lissa Ford|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1436434657s/25238854.jpg|44957817] and they have been five difficult months, but they have worked hard to stay together. They have moved forward and though they can’t imagine going back to a life without the other it seemed like it just may have to come to that. They love hard and they fight hard and their passion comes through on the page. Their struggle was emotional and at times and my heart was breaking as I blamed each of them for what was happening (though I blamed Jude a bit more).

While a new avenue of opportunity presents itself to Jude towards the end of this book, there is something else looming that they will have to deal with first. I don’t want to characterize the ending as a cliff hanger, but there is something that comes up that makes for an uncertain future. The men still love and are there for each other, but once again their road seems to be heading uphill.

Lissa Ford’s writing is wonderful. Both the relationship and mystery storylines consistently work well together. I am really hoping that in the next book there is more time for these two to be with each other without being torn apart. They have been put through the wringer since before the first book starts and they definitely deserve their happy ever after.

My reading love affair with Carla Kelly's books began with Beau Crusoe, and I've never looked back. Many of her books have resonated with me from the very first paragraph like Reforming Lord Ragsdale, Libby's London Merchant, The Wedding Journey, and With This Ring to name a few and I've read and reread them many times. But The Spanish Brand series just seemed to languish on the bookshelves. I'm still not sure why I kept shuffling this series further and further down the Mt. TBR mountain, but I came across them again in yet another effort to reorganize the TBR shelves (a futile exercise to make Mt. TBR appear smaller) and decided now was the time.

 

The Spanish Brand is, for now, three books (though I've read somewhere there may be more in the future) - The Double Cross, Marco and the Devil's Bargain, and Paloma and the Horse Traders. Though each book can easily be read as a stand alone, I found reading all three gave me a better appreciation for the ongoing relationship between Marco and Paloma Mondragon. The beauty, if you will, that could be seen of not just this couple falling in love but in witness to how loving someone every day challenges and stretches each person in the relationship, how the relationship is constantly evolving and becoming more. Marco

 

Mondragon and his wife, Paloma, were vividly drawn and very sympathetic, and the strong bond between them by the end of the third book was more credible for the flaws each bring to the marriage as it was the celebration of their strengths. Little things like Marco's dogged determination to feed Paloma enough "eggs, chorizo, hominy, pork, turkey, venison, beef, mutton, tortillas, and flan on Sunday's" until he couldn't feel her ribs and Paloma's "look" she levels at Marco when he's a dunderhead offered comedic relief at times but also served to bring their characters together into sharper focus. The three books in toto make a splendid story, at the very least, about making marriage work every day, going far beyond the usual 'happy ever after' that usually ends a romance.

 

The setting, the Valle del Sol in 1780, in the Spanish colony of New Mexico on the edge of Comacheria territory to the east and Apache territory to the south, is such an unusual one for historical romance. I loved the rich details, even, at times, its gritty realism. I was a little unprepared at times for the sheer brutality human beings can inflict on other human beings, but the violence was never gratuitous. External threats to survival like Native American uprisings to disease - like cholera which took Marco's first wife and twin sons and la viruela, smallpox, in Marco and The Devil's Bargain - or the equally deadly but internally-driven menace of closed-minded intolerance and unreasoning hatred underscore how precious life really is. All three books are a wonderful amalgam of history and romance, with the the latter entwined seamlessly into Marco and Paloma's ongoing adventures and challenges. The history of the Spanish in New Mexico, Marco's particularly unique office and duties of "juez de campo" on the edge of Comacheria, outriders armed with bow and arrow instead of guns, the various tribes of Native Americans (Utes, Apaches, and Comanche), life on the "llano estacado" for the Kwahadi as well as surviving and thriving on a hacienda in the late 18th century really came to life for me here between these pages.

 

All three books had sections I found unforgettable - moments of tenderness, riveting drama, or simply a little bit of dark humor (like Toshua's calm assertions that any bodily threat to Paloma or Marco could be eliminated effectively, quietly, and quite permanently). Like the reason Marco nails Paloma's bloody sandals, her dowry to their marriage, over the mantel, just slightly below the crucifix, to show that he honors her and her courage.

 

He knocked on the door of the kitchen. He thought he heard a mumbled "Enter", but he was coming in anyway. Best to be formal now, because he knew what he wanted.

 

"Señorita Vega, since there is no papa and no go-between, you will have to hear this from me. Kindly give me all your attention."

 

She looked at him, startled, her eyes wary now, but not so hopeless. She nodded.

 

He held out her sandals. "I am claiming your sandals as your dowry."

 

He was an experienced husband. Her comment was most unloverlike, to be sure, but it was already wifely.

 

"Not one moth, Paloma, my heart." He glanced at her, gleeful to see the tears start in her eyes at his endearment. Oh, he could do this. "Your sandals. I intend to hang them in my - our - sala in Valle del Sol, certainly a little lower than the crucifix, but not much lower, because they mean almost as much to me."

 

"Explain yourself, Señor," she said, giving him permission to continue.

 

"You were willing to walk and walk on bloody feet to return a foolish dog to me to keep my feet warm. You had no idea where del Sol was when you started out, except that it was near Comacheria, a place that terrifies you."

 

She nodded, her eyes ever so serious.

 

"You can see the snow coming lower and lower down the mountains, same as me. You had a few coins in your apron and you were going to walk until you dropped, to the most dangerous place in the colony, if you had to, to return a runt."

 

He sank to his knees then, not because it seemed like a good idea when wooing a stubborn woman, but because his legs would not hold him. "I'm going to look at these sandals every day if I have to, and do my best to be the husband, father, rancher, and juez that someone as wonderful, brave, and stubborn as you are deserves. Your sandals, Paloma. Give them to me. I never met such a brave woman as you." (73, The Double Cross)

 

If I had to choose a favorite of the three, I think it would have to be Marco and the Devil's Bargain. La viruela, small pox, is almost another character in the book and protecting Paloma from small pox leads Marco to make a deal with a shifty physician who promises to inoculate her and everyone at Valle del Sol if Marco will lead him to the llano estacado, "the staked plains", to help him find his daughter, taken by the Penateka Comanches. The journey is dangerous not just for the terrain to be traveled and the time of year, but also because it is a forbidden place for anyone other than Kwahadi.

 

Spanish conquistador Francisco Coronado, was the first European to traverse the llano estacado, "the sea of grass", "the staked plain", in 1541:

 

I reached some plains so vast, that I did not find their limit anywhere I went, although I traveled over them for more than 300 leagues ... with no more land marks than if we had been swallowed up by the sea ... there was not a stone, nor bit of rising ground, nor a tree, nor a shrub, nor anything to go by. (Wikipedia)

 

According to legend, Coronado and his men had to mark their trails with stakes, like Hansel and Gretel with bread crumbs, in order to find their way back. Another legend says the stakes were placed in order to have something to tie their horses to at night.

 

Marco is between Scylla and Charybdis: he can take the chance that Paloma will not contract small pox and refuse Gil's bargain or he can allow Dr. Gil to inoculate her (which may kill her anyway) and have to face a journey from which he may not return. These several chapters including the journey into the llano estacado, to the winter camp of the Comanche, were fraught with tension and turmoil. The group is beset by a wandering band of Comanche dying from small pox, attacked by Apaches, and forced to live for months in the staked plains with the Kwahadi people till the weather clears enough for travel. The months spent in the winter village of the Kwahadi is written beautifully, with some of the tightest writing - evocative, emotion-filled, enlightening - of the three books. When Marco decides it's time to return to Valle del Sol, I admit I was a little sad to say goodbye to Eckapeta, Ayasha, Buffalo Rut, Kahúu, and the babies.

 

There was one scene where the group finds a Comanche, dying of the Dark Wind, a man unable to sing his death song so Toshua begins to sing his death song for him. Paloma stops him when she hears the "high and unearthly" song, coming straight from his heart:

 

"Please stop," Paloma said, her voice soft, but cutting through the song. Toshua did as she asked.

 

"I think it is not good for you to sing your own death song, pabi," she said, and began to sing a different song, one so familiar to Marco. She graciously took the burden from her adopted brother with a hymn of her faith. O God we praise thee; we acknowledge thee to be the Lord.

 

He already knew how sweet and pure her voice was. She had sung to him a time or two, late at night when no one was listening. "Te deum laudamus", she sang "te dominum confitemur."

 

In the cold and snow of a feeble fire that gave off little light and no warmth, his wife sang praise to God with a dying Comanche in her lap. Marco joined her on the "Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus," and then hummed with her when she was too teary-eyed to sing anymore. (125, Marco and the Devil's Bargain)

 

The Te Deum is a beautiful hymn, a beautiful prayer, one of thanksgiving and adoration as well as a humble plea for help. In it also is a reference to St. Paul's words - "death, where is thy sting?" The death song is a song celebrating life, an acknowledgement of having left nothing undone and nothing unsaid, a rejoicing at entering the next plane, leaving this world with grace. For Toshua to offer his song to a man who had turned him out of his village and for Paloma to sing the Te Deum, I think, in place of the dying Comanche's death song shows a generosity of spirit, an offer of compassion, comfort and solace from one human being to another, without regard to race or religion.

 

I enjoyed these books so much and found them to be a richly rewarding reading experience. Themes of love lost and regained, of integrity and courage, finding contentment after adversity, strength in the face of loss, kindness, compassion, and celebrating our humanity are threads woven throughout all three books. Yes, there are parts that are difficult to read, but there's also humor, characters I liked, and plenty of adventures of ordinary people doing the occasional extraordinary thing.